Ultraviolet Hippopotamus

Songs For The Reaper is an alighting trip from the very beginning, an experience of soulful Blues, bluegrass and rocking jam band music from north coast Big Rapids, MI. Ultraviolet Hippopotamus (UV Hippo) deliver their self-arranged, produced and recorded effort, guest-starring musicians from Greensky Bluegrass, Rootstand and Lonesome Jane.

Check out unavailing instrumental bliss with "Dusty's Trumpet," experience an absence for time and space throughout the "E.M.D (Electro molecular Displacement)," and don't forget to turn into "The Woods" for a lil' surprise around each and every corner of this 10 minute grave robbing jam!

UV Hippo's Songs For The Reaper will someday be a classic among fans and friends if it isn't already. - Joe Parsaca (WYCE Reviewer)
- Music Revue

When thinking of an Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, you may picture a glowing purple hippo, too bright to look
at. Or maybe that’s just me. Either way, the sad reality is that this mystical creature doesn’t really exist.
However, we are lucky to have the next best thing. It’s the jam band from Big Rapids named after this supernatural
creature. Ultraviolet Hippopotamus defi nitely lives up to the magic of that non-existent, glowing
animal. Featuring fi ve multi-talented musicians, with Brian Samuels on bass guitar and mandolin; ... Joe
Phillion on drums; Sam Guidry on guitar and bass guitar; ... the band highlights many different sounds
with each performance.
Guidry describes the style of UV Hippo as somewhat psychedelic. “We don’t even know what we’re going
to play some nights until we play it; but when it happens, and we go, ‘whoa, that was cool’...and it could be
funk, it could be rocking in that part, it could be, you know, like “bluegrassy”. You never know. It’s always a
new experience.”A live Ultraviolet Hippopotamus show includes both covers and original material the band
write collectively. “We cover Pink Floyd, Umphrey’s McGee and Paul Simon [among others] because we like
those songs...and other songs, like “Godzilla”, by Blue Oyster Cult isn’t a huge infl uence, but [Godzilla is] a
cool song, and people like it. We like to play sort of a musical joke every once in a while, “says Guidry.
As far as original material goes: “Someone comes up with the main idea, and we all sort of ‘hippopotamize’
it”, says Samuels. Whatever ‘hippopotomizing’ may involve, we may never know for sure. But
I can tell you it works well. Experiencing Ultraviolet Hippopotamus live is a unique event. The energy
the band creates on stage has a gravitational pull that lures you in and keeps you there until the end
of the set. Guidry says, “I think we try to make for an experience. Not just a band playing songs, but
a show with an idea that was thought out. It’s kind of like creating a painting...we use different strokes
at different times to create different feelings inside the crowd. We like to take it up and we like to take
it down, so at the end of it, you kind of feel like you’ve been on a trip or something”.
Upcoming plans include recording a studio project, due out in July. The band also hopes to set a date
for a live recording. Both projects will ensure that the magic of the Ultraviolet Hippopotamus lives on.
— Taylor Olds, The Revue, April 2006 - Taylor Olds The Revue

All six guys are excellent musicians, and they search out great sounds from all genre. Ultraviolet
Hippopotamus uses creative originals and obscure treasures from others to treat you to one remarkable
surprise after another! Even when Ultraviolet Hippopotamus breaks into a favorite everyone
knows, there is still a never been here before feel to it. They don’t cover a song; they re-create it.”
— Bill Beckwith 100.9 FM - Bill Beckwith 100.9 FM Big Rapids Michigan

“Every time they play there is always something unexpected, some sort of musical surprise. They
always attract a fun, energetic crowd. In short, these guys are a blast.”
— Mark Dorich, Founders Brewing Co. - Mark Dorich, Founders Brewery